Download I will speak no more in His name

I will speak no more in His name
Persecuted for Truth.
Jeremiah the prophet said he would not speak any more in that name.
Why? Because of his own persecution, strife among his people, and because
of man’s mockery.
Jeremiah 18:11-13
11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you,
and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way,
and make your ways and your doings good.
12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices,
and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
13 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who
hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
Here God tells Israel to return from their evil ways and make their doings
good. But Israel refused. Since Israel refused to change their ways, God
pronounces judgement and punishment against Israel.
Jeremiah 18:15-17
15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to
vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient
paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
16 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that
passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head.
17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show
them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
After hearing these words of Jeremiah the prophet, Israel devises against
Jeremiah and smites him with the tongue.
Jeremiah 18:18-23
18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the
law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word
from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not
give heed to any of his words.
19 Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that
contend with me.
20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my
soul. Remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them, and to turn
away thy wrath from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their
blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their
children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young
men be slain by the sword in battle.
22 Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop
suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares
for my feet.
23 Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me:
forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let
them be overthrown before thee; deal thus with them in the time of thine
anger.
Then Pashur, the Chief Governor, makes a public mockery of Jeremiah by
putting him in stocks.
Jeremiah 20:1-6
20:1 Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor
in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
2 Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that
were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.
3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah
out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called
thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib.
4 For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and
to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine
eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of
Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them
with the sword.
5 Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours
thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings
of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them,
and take them, and carry them to Babylon.
6 And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity:
and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried
there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.
I will speak no more in His name because of discouragement
Jeremiah 20:7-18
7 O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger
than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word
of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his
name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones,
and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
10 For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they,
and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying,
Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we
shall take our revenge on him.
11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my
persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly
ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never
be forgotten.
12 But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and
the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my
cause.
13 Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul
of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
14 Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my
mother bare me be blessed.
15 Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man
child is born unto thee; making him very glad.
16 And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and
repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at
noontide;
17 Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have
been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
18 Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that
my days should be consumed with shame?
The Apostles in the New Testament also were persecuted for speaking in His
name.
Acts 4:1-20
1 And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the
temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,
2 Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the
resurrection from the dead.
3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for
it was now eventide.
4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of
the men was about five thousand.
5 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and
scribes,
6 And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as
many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at
Jerusalem.
7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or
by what name, have ye done this?
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the
people, and elders of Israel,
9 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by
what means he is made whole;
10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the
dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is
become the head of the corner.
12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that
they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took
knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
14 And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they
could say nothing against it.
15 But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they
conferred among themselves,
16 Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle
hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and
we cannot deny it.
17 But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten
them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.
18 And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach
in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in
the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
For the Apostles, Peter and John, to breathe was to speak - Jesus Name.
Only in death would they become silent, and even then, their life’s testimony
cries out and proclaims - JESUS CHRIST IS LORD! Amen.